A Denver certified public accountant today was sentenced to 20 years in prison for stealing from college trust funds established to help educate the children of some of his closest friends.
Peter Davis Johnson, 65, was also ordered to pay nearly $3 million in restitution to the trust funds, and to the owners of an apartment complex from which he allegedly kept rent payments he was supposed to process.
He was sentenced to 20 years for violating the Colorado Organized Crime Control Act and an additional 12 years for each of four theft counts. The theft counts are to be served concurrently to the organized crime count — for a total of 20 years in prison.
The theft was from the college trust funds set up for a boy born in 1991 and his sister, who was born in 1993.
Every year, the children’s father contributed $20,000 to each of the college trust funds. Johnson was the trustee for both.
Johnson had been the business and personal tax accountant for the children’s grandparents for years.
During the time he raided the trusts, Johnson created fraudulent reports showing that revenue was being generated.
In 2008, not satisfied with Johnson or the money he allegedly was making for the college funds, the family confronted him.
Johnson admitted there was less than $1,000 left in each of the accounts.
According to Denver prosecutors, Johnson used the money for his personal and business expenses.
In the apartment case, Johnson was supposed to be processing rent payments for two large complexes. He was accused of keeping the money, using it for his own personal and business expenses, instead of forwarding the payments to the owner.
The $700,000 theft from the trust funds occurred between February 1992 and August 2008, according to Lynn Kimbrough, spokeswoman for the Denver district attorney’s office.
The theft from the apartment complexes occurred between April 2007 and August 2008 and totaled more than $2 million, Kimbrough said.
Howard Pankratz: 303-954-1939 or hpankratz@denverpost.com
